January 31, 2014

Whoever dreamed up coffee cake is a genius. I mean, who doesn't love an excuse to eat cake for breakfast? This delicious recipe comes from Taste of Home and would make an excellent brunch menu item.

Frozen raspberries work just as well as fresh in this recipe, so it's easy to make in the winter. I used frozen for the cake, but garnished with fresh raspberries from Florida. It's too warm in South Florida to grow raspberries, but they grow well further north.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Cut in butter (I use a pastry blender) until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a small bowl, whisk the egg, milk and vanilla together with a fork. Stir into crumb mixture, just until moistened.

Spoon batter into cake pan. The batter will be thick so don't worry about spreading it evenly, but do try to get it as close to the sides of the pan as possible.

In a small saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; stir in water until smooth. Add raspberries and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, then stir for 1-2 minutes until thickened. Pour over cake batter and swirl raspberry mixture into the cake batter with a spoon.

In a small bowl, combine flour and sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter, then top with nuts. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for one hour before serving.

January 16, 2014

Chris loves every variation of tacos, so much so that he's willing to skip the meat for a vegetarian taco pizza. This awesome recipe comes from Budget Bytes and I made just a few minor changes, such as adding black beans.

I had no idea that dough dockers existed until recently. I've always used the fork method for docking, but my pizza crusts started having massive air bubbles so I turned to google where I found the dough docker recommendation.

I bought a small cheap Fox Run dough docker and am really happy with it. It's the type of thing that is only worth purchasing though if you make pizza quite often as we do.

This week's CSA box contained cilantro, hot peppers and many, many tomatoes...perfect for making salsa! I still find it odd to get CSA items I associate with summer in the dead of winter. It makes me feel as though I'm living in the southern hemisphere, where the seasons are reversed. Using a jar of salsa would make this recipe come together even more quickly.

January 10, 2014

So I didn't plan on doing a series of ice cream cocktails, but somehow I'm on number two in the same week. I blame leftover ice cream and whipped cream. If you like orange dreamsicles, you'll love this latest creamy cocktail.

I know ice cream might not sound appealing right now considering how cold it is around the rest of the country, but the blood orange season is short, so this cocktail has to be enjoyed in the winter.

Florida is known for citrus but unfortunately blood oranges do not grow well here. They fare better in more arid climates with lower humidity and colder winters than Florida provides. Spain, Italy and California produce the majority of blood oranges.

This drink starts with my favorite margarita recipe, which is added to vanilla ice cream in a blender. The result is a softly pink hued but decidedly boozy ice cream cocktail.

We typically use Patrón Citrónge when making these margaritas but felt compelled to buy Solerno blood orange liqueur when we saw it as an option at our local liquor store. I'm not sure how widely distributed it is, but definitely buy it if you can find it!

Blood Orange Margarita Ice Cream Cocktail

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: N/A

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Ingredients (2 cocktails)

3 oz simple syrup

2 oz orange liqueur (I recommend Patrón Citrónge)

2 oz fresh lime juice

3 oz blood orange juice (1-2 oranges)

3 oz tequila (I recommend 1800 Reposado)

4 cups vanilla ice cream

whipped cream, for garnish

Instructions

In a small saucepan, make a simple syrup by combining a 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar over medium high heat. Heat until sugar is dissolved; remove from heat and cool.

January 08, 2014

Wisconsin is known for supper clubs and there's no better way to end a meal at a supper club then with an ice cream cocktail. This recipe comes from Greenwood Supper Club in Fish Creek, Wisconsin via a Saveur article on ice cream cocktails.

According to a recent BlogHer article, I shouldn't be using striped straws anymore :) If you're a blogger and haven't yet read "10 Food Blog Trends That Should Stop," it's totally worth a read.

If you like mint chocolate chip ice cream, you'll love this drink. If you're not a fan of minty drinks, try a pink squirrel instead which is made with an almond-flavored liqueur called crème de noya.

In order to make a green grasshopper, be sure to buy green crème de menthe. We mistakenly bought a clear version, so I used food coloring to make it green. With St. Patrick's Day coming up, a grasshopper could also be served as a boozy shamrock shake.

If you're more interested in having a cocktail than dessert, you can add 3 oz of whole milk in place of the ice cream and make it in a cocktail shaker. That's the Big Bang Theory version of this drink that allows Raj to talk to women.

Grasshopper

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Ingredients (1 cocktail)

2 cups vanilla ice cream

1 oz green crème de menthe

1 oz clear crème de cacao

whipped cream, for garnish

Instructions

Puree ice cream, the crème de cacao and half of the crème de menthe in a blender. Pour into a cocktail glass. Top with whipped cream and drizzle remaining crème de menthe over the top. Serve immediately.

January 05, 2014

One of our first meals while living in England was a ploughman's lunch at a pub and we loved it. After seeing a great vegetarian combination mentioned on The Kitchn I knew I needed to try it. A traditional pub style ploughman's lunch consists of crusty bread, cheddar cheese, pickled onions and chutney. It may also contain ham and apple slices.

I really like hard-boiled eggs, but never think to make them so I'm glad this gave me an excuse to get some made. I followed advice from It's Fitting on how to cook them and it worked perfectly. Here are the basics:

1) In a large saucepan, add eggs and enough cold water to cover them by an inch.
2) Over medium-high heat bring the water to a boil.
3) As soon as the water starts to boil, remove from heat and cover for 10 minutes.
4) Remove eggs and put them cold water for 10 minutes.

The little baguette slices made for a might tasty sandwich. I grew up on Swiss cheese sandwiches made with rye bread and mustard, which is definitely my favorite sandwich combination.

The slate board I used for our ploughman's lunch is from Uncommon Goods. It's my favorite site to buy things that I didn't even know I needed :) Today I found myself wishing it was a little bigger as I tried to arrange everything on it, but it's probably a great size to use as a cheese board which is what it's intended for.

The board comes with chalk, but I used a chalk ink pen instead that I recently got from Amazon. The pen works really well and is easy to erase with water. I bought it to go along with chalk labels that I also ordered from Amazon. I love the look of these labels on Oxo containers. I'm also using them on my glass jars, but they're not ideal because the Ball jars don't have a flat area to place them on.

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